Michelangelo: 1 Michelangelo: “The Divine One” “The Divine One” 1 Goings on 2 Michelangelo, Cont
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Tidings Bayshore Presbyterian Church March 25, 2015 Inside This Issue Michelangelo: 1 Michelangelo: “The Divine One” “The Divine One” 1 Goings On 2 Michelangelo, cont. Painter, sculptor and architect Michelangelo Buonarroti was born in 3 Building and Grounds Update Caprese, Italy on March 6, 1475. During a more than 70-year career, he won near-mythical fame as one of Europe’s preeminent 3 Birthdays/Anniversaries “Renaissance Men,” and counted kings and popes among his many 3 admirers and patrons. Temperamental and brilliant, Michelangelo Prayer List crafted several masterpieces 4 From the Pastor’s Desk including the statue of David, the “Pieta” and the ceiling of the Sistine 4 News From Beth-El Chapel. On the 540th anniversary of 4 his birth, here are nine surprising Just Another Day on the Bayshore facts about the artist often called “the 5 Volunteer List Divine One.” 1. A jealous rival broke his nose when he was a teenager. As a teen, Michelangelo was sent to live and study in the home of GOINGS ON Lorenzo de’ Medici, then one of the most important art patrons in all of Europe. His steady hand with a Sunday, March 29 chisel and paintbrush soon made him the envy of all his fellow pupils. Palm Sunday Service 10:30 am One young rival named Pietro Torrigiano grew so enraged at Michelangelo’s superior talent—and perhaps also his sharp tongue— that he walloped him in the nose, leaving it permanently smashed and Thursday, April 2 disfigured. “I gave him such a blow on the nose that I felt bone and Maundy Thursday Tenebrae Service 7:00 pm cartilage go down like biscuit beneath my knuckles,” Torrigiano later bragged, “and this mark of mine he will carry with him to the grave.” Friday, April 3 2. He first rose to prominence after a failed attempt at art fraud. Good Friday Services – Palma Ceia 12:00 pm Early in his career, Michelangelo carved a now-lost cupid statue in the 7:00 pm style of the ancient Greeks. Upon seeing the work, his patron Lorenzo Saturday, April 4 di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici proposed an elaborate con. “If you were to B & G Workday 9:00a -12:00p prepare it so that it should appear to have been buried,” Medici said, “I shall send it to Rome and it would Sunday, April 5 pass for an antique, and you would Easter Sunrise Service 6:45 am sell it much more profitably.” Michel- Festive Worship Service 10:30 am angelo agreed, and the sham cupid was sold to Cardinal Raffaele Riario under the guise of being a recently recovered archeological wonder. Riario later heard rumors of the scam and got his money back, but he was so impressed by Michelangelo’s skill that he invited him to Rome for a meeting. The young sculptor would linger in the Eternal City for the next several years, eventually winning a commission to carve the “Pieta,” the work that first made his name as an artist. 3. He carved the “David” from a discarded block of marble. Michelangelo was notoriously picky about the marble he used for his . sculptures, yet for his famous “David” statue, he made use of a making extensive sketches for lookout bastions and even block that other artists had deemed unworkable. Known as “the traveling to nearby towns to study their defensive walls. His Giant,” the massive slab had been quarried nearly 40 years earlier designs later proved a significant obstacle when the Pope’s for a series of sculptures, forces arrived to reclaim the city, and Florence survived 10 eventually abandoned, for the months under siege before finally falling in August 1530. Florence Cathedral. It had Michelangelo could have easily been executed as a traitor, but deteriorated and grown rough Clement VII forgave him for his role in the rebellion and even after years of exposure to the immediately re-hired him. The artist’s position in Medici-ruled elements, and by the time Florence remained tenuous, however, and when the Pope died Michelangelo began working with in 1534, Michelangelo fled the city for Rome, never to return. it in 1501, it already bore the chisel marks of more than one 7. He was an accomplished poet. frustrated sculptor. Michelangelo Michelangelo is best known as a visual artist, yet in his day he eventually crafted the discarded was also a respected man of letters. He produced several block into one of his most hundred sonnets and madrigals over his career, often jotting luminous works, but recent analyses of the “David” have revealed down stray lines of verse as he that the poor quality of its stone may have caused it to degrade at hammered away at statues in his a faster rate than most marble statues. workshop. Michelangelo’s poetry makes use of extensive wordplay, 4. He completed artworks for nine different Catholic Popes. and touches on everything from sex Beginning in 1505, Michelangelo worked for nine consecutive and aging to his overactive bladder Catholic pontiffs from Julius II to Pius IV. His breadth of work for (he bemoans a “drippy duct the Vatican was vast, and included everything from crafting compelling me awake too early”). ornamental knobs for the papal bed to spending four grueling While none of these works was years painting the ceiling of the formally published in his lifetime, Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo’s they circulated widely among dealings with his holy patrons Rome’s 16th century literati, and were not always pleasant. He composers even set some of them had a particularly fraught to music. relationship with the combative Pope Julius II, and once spent three years working on a marble 8. He kept working until the week he died. façade for Leo X, only for the Michelangelo spent most of his golden years overseeing Pope to abruptly cancel the construction on St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. Even after project. The artist later enjoyed he became too weak to go to the more convivial partnerships work site regularly, he still with other pontiffs, and found a supervised the job from home famous champion in Pope Paul III, by sending drawings and who defended his work “The Last designs to trusted foremen. Judgment” after church officials Sculpture remained Michel- deemed its many nude figures angelo’s true love, however, obscene. and he continued chiseling away in his home studio until 5. He inserted his own likeness into some of his most famous the very end. Only days before works. he died at the age of 88, he was Michelangelo rarely signed his works and left behind no formal still working on the so-called self-portraits, but he occasionally hid stylized depictions of his face “Rondanini Pieta,” which depicts in his paintings and sculptures. The most famous of these secret Jesus in the Virgin Mary’s arms. self-portraits is found in his 1541 Sistine Chapel fresco 9. Two of his most famous works “The Last Judgment,” in which have been victims of vandalism. St. Bartholomew is shown In 1972, a mentally unstable geologist named Laszlo Toth holding a piece of flayed skin hopped a guardrail at St. Peter’s Basilica and took a hammer to whose face appears to be that Michelangelo’s “Pieta.” The attack broke off the Madonna’s of the artist. Michelangelo also nose and forearm as well as part of her eyelid and veil. portrayed himself as Saint Restoration crews later recovered Nicodemus in his so-called dozens of bits of marble from the Florentine Pieta, and art priceless statue, including one historians have suggested he mailed to the Vatican by a guilty may be depicted in a crowd American tourist who had picked it scene in his fresco “The up during the commotion. It took Crucifixion of St. Peter.” 10 months of repair before the “Pieta” was finally put on display 6. He designed military fortifications for the city of Florence. again—this time behind a layer of In 1527, the citizens of Michelangelo’s native Florence expelled protective glass. A similar fate the ruling Medici family and installed a republican government. later befell the “David” in 1991, Despite being in the employ of the Medici Pope Clement VII, when a chisel-wielding vandal Michelangelo backed the republican cause and was appointed hammered off part of a toe on its director of the city’s fortifications. He took the job seriously, left foot. Building and Grounds Update April Birthdays The Building and Grounds Committee is undertaking several major projects this Spring and is looking for 1 Nan Grothmann support from the entire Bayshore Presbyterian community. 3 Caroline Heagey th On Wednesday, March 25 , the entire building will be Bud Smith tented to exterminate the termites and any other unwelcomed guests. The building will be off limits to everyone until at least Friday afternoon. Please note that if you drive by the church and see people gathered on the April Anniversaries lawn or in the parking lot, these are just one of the many groups that would normally be using the Community 7 Warren & Lona Elly Room. Everyone has graciously agreed to accommodate the change in schedule so the tenting can move ahead as planned. Once the tenting is complete, we are moving forward with the flooring project. The foyer and both side Each month we pray for members and halls will have damaged wood replaced and then these areas will be sanded and refinished. No date has been friends. set, but once the project starts, these areas will be off This month, please pray for: limits until the polyurethane has had time to completely dry.